Tyler Pitlick has had an interesting journey to get to where he is right now. His path to the NHL, if he ever makes it full time, wouldn't be considered standard despite his status as a drafted player. Luckily, for his sake, he has had staunch supporters throughout his development because without those advocates I don't know if his accomplishments alone would merit an NHL career.
Drafted in 31st Overall in 2010 this was the scouting report from Bob McKenzie who had him rated 25th:
Tyler Pitlick is the nephew of former NHL defenceman Lance Pitlick and scored 11 goals as a freshman at Mankato State University. A late 1991 birthdate, he was an offensive player in the Minnesota high school system but will have to prove he can put up numbers with each step up in competition, but he plays a solid enough all-around game to garner first round consideration.
He clearly had fans throughout the league because on that McKenzie list he was ahead of guys like Tyler Toffoli and Justin Faulk, players the Oilers would gladly take ahead of Pitlick today. No doubt he made fans of scouts with his raw physical tools. He has size and speed to go along with what was once considered a good shot.
NHL Central Scouting touted his faceoff prowess and his ability to dominate the game. So this Center the Oilers were drafting had a real shot at giving the team the boost it needed down the middle. Except it didn't work out that way.
You see, what makes Pitlick's development path so non-standard is how often he changed leagues, and I firmly believe that the constant change had a negative impact. He finished playing US High School hockey and played one year at Minnesota State - Mankato, where he was drafted out of.
Instead of letting him develop there in college the Oilers convinced Pitlick that a CHL stint would help fastback his growth as a prospect. He joined the Medicine Hat Tigers who quickly determined that Pitlick wasn't going to be a Center for the club.
There went that dream.
No longer deemed suitable to play C mere weeks after being drafted as a potential Oiler Center wasn't the only setback that year. Despite all the accolades Pitlick failed to do exactly what Bob McKenzie said he needed to, which was prove he could put up big numbers at those higher levels. He scored 62 points in 56 games that year, which might seem like a great season but if wanted to be considered a quality prospect he needed to be keeping pace with Emerson Etem's 80 points or Linden Vey's 118 points, and those were just his teammates.
He only played the 1 season in the CHL, after which he was shuffled along to the AHL. Now a winger, Pitlick again failed to translate all of his physical tools into scoring at the next level. Having finished 3 AHL seasons Tyler Pitlick has never scored more than 23 points or played more than 62 games. In fact, he has played fewer games in every consecutive season. Last year was his best offensive season with the Barons netting 22 points in 39 games.
It isn't promising.
Besides the scoring concerns there's the injuries which keep derailing him. His NHL debut was a showcase of everything that keeps giving Pitlick opportunities at the professional level. He showcased his NHL speed and a physical game that the Oilers lacked. He showed up with authority, but that performance looked like it was more adrenaline than anything else by the end of the season when Pitlick was mostly invisible. Albeit he was perhaps injured and ineffective due to a wonky knee.
Drafted as a scoring Center, Pitlick now will be fighting to make a career as a 4th line Winger in the NHL. Such is life, but one has to wonder if the attempt to fast track his development early on robbed him of a chance to fulfill all that potential that was there on Draft Day. Pushed through from High School to College to the CHL to the AHL it seems as though Pitlick left something behind at every level.
Now we have to wonder, what does he have left?
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